


Absolutely Smitten

by blutopaz15



Series: Craft Store AU [1]
Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Craft Store, F/M, Flirting, callum is immediately smitten, pining!Callum, pining!Rayla, pretty much love at first sight, secret forbidden romance situation?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:08:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27027085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blutopaz15/pseuds/blutopaz15
Summary: “Rayla reached for the a packet of colorful letter stickers, realizing too late that the boy had reached for the same item. She withdrew her hand quickly when his little finger met the side of her hand and a static shock transferred from his hand to hers, a side effect of the chilled winter weather outside. The jolt of electricity caused her to look up, finding bright green eyes staring back at her. They widened as she returned his stare.“Every Monday night, Rayla has a visitor at work.
Relationships: Callum & Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Callum/Rayla (The Dragon Prince), Rayllum - Relationship
Series: Craft Store AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2051526
Comments: 255
Kudos: 221





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all!! 
> 
> So, normally I’m not the biggest fan of AUs, but I thought I’d give it a go with this little idea that’s been bouncing around my head...Rayla works at a craft store part time and Callum keeps coming in to “buy art supplies”...general flirting ensues.
> 
> This fic is going to multiple fluffy-flirting-filled chapters. 
> 
> Enjoy!

She normally wasn’t one to be startled. But, she hadn’t quite been herself lately. Even away from the undercurrent of stress at home, she was distracted. She’d gone through her shift in a daze, wandering the aisles, avoiding people at all costs. Now she’d settled in a quiet corner, sorting mindlessly through a messy pile of stickers someone had abandoned. She’d been in such a fog that when stood and spun around to the cart she’d been dragging around with her all day, she jumped at seeing someone standing at the other end of it.

Flinching in surprise caused the slippery packets of misplaced stickers gathered in her arms to fall, mostly scattering across the linoleum floor, while only a few fell into the bottom of the cart, where they were meant to go. She sighed and rolled her eyes as the blue-jacketed human boy across from her started apologizing.

”Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you—“ 

”You didn’t _scare_ me,” she scoffed, stooping down to pick up the packets from the ground.

”Here,” he said, stepping around her cart and bending down next to her, “Let me help you at least.”

Rayla reached for the a packet of colorful letter stickers, realizing too late that the boy had reached for the same item. She withdrew her hand quickly when his little finger met the side of her hand and a static shock transferred from his hand to hers, a side effect of the chilled winter weather outside. The jolt of electricity caused her to look up, finding bright green eyes staring back at her. They widened as she returned his stare.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, cheeks turning scarlet. She felt her own cheeks warm when he didn’t immediately look away.

”It—it‘s okay,” she muttered. She broke the connection first and continued to gather up the plastic packages back into her arms. He reached for a few and handed them to her as they stood up. “Did you need something?” She asked as she dumped the stickers into the cart.

”Oh, uh. Yeah. I did,” he said, standing stiffly across from her, color still fading from his cheeks.

”Well?” She asked expectantly. She leaned forward against the cart, keeping it steady with a foot on the bar down below. She let one corner of her mouth rise in a smile, seeing how clearly still flustered he was.

”Paper and charcoal?” He raised a single finger as if what he needed was a sudden idea instead of the whole reason for coming to the store.

”Right side, last aisle.” She pointed towards the back of the store.

”Thanks,” he smiled and then followed the direction of her finger, but not before his right foot caught on the wheel of the cart she leaned against, causing him to stumble. He didn’t acknowledge the misstep, but she saw the cringe that crossed across his face before his back was to her. She shook her head as looked over his shoulder as he walked away.

* * *

He’d long ago found what he needed, but he’d meandered the back few aisles, hoping she’d show up back here. He’d been ready to give up, but as he’d started to make his way back to the front of the store, he saw her emerge from an aisle near the middle of the store. Inexplicably, as soon as he saw her again, he felt his face flush again and he froze. Then he shuddered, remembering how he’d literally finished their last conversation by falling all over himself.

He watched as, with her back turned, she reached up to adjust something on a high shelf. He’d noticed her four-fingered hand as they’d picked up the stickers earlier, but now his eyes were drawn to how slender and careful her hand looked. Gracefully, deliberately, she turned back to toss something into the cart. Her eyes, though, had been downcast. Sad looking. She glanced up, though, as she made to continue winding her way around the store. When her eyes met his, the shade of lilac brightened and she smiled almost imperceptibly back at him. She ran a hand back through her hair, and it rested against her horns, which seemed to keep her hair from falling across her face. Catching himself in the midst of his wide-eyed stare, he turned to the display of paint next to him, pretending to examine a bottle closely before she could notice his staring too.

Desperate for a reason to speak with her and rectify his embarrassment from earlier, once he saw out of the corner of his eye that she’d disappeared again, he walked back to the display of charcoal in the aisle and replaced the one in his hand on the peg. Then, he started to make his way towards where he’d last seen her, craning his head to peer down each aisle as he went.

Then, suddenly, silently, she was there, in front of him again, sporting that slight, wry smile again. ”Do you still need something?” She asked.

”Uhhh...” He looked down at the spiral-bound pad of paper in his hands, then glanced up to meet her eyes. “Yeah, I couldn’t find the, uh, charcoal.”

”Well, it’s definitely not over here,” she teased, smile widening a bit. “I’ll show you.” She slid the cart to the side and walked past him, stepping so close that he could smell lavender, which he assumed to be her soap. He blinked for a moment, feeling his fascination with this beautiful, graceful, purple-eyed elven girl increase. Before she could notice his pause, he followed as she led him back toward that last aisle she’d referred to, glancing over her shoulder at him to see if he was following.

”Sorry for interrupting you while you were working,” he started, trying to find something to say, as he raised a hand to awkwardly rub at the back of his head. He cringed as his voice cracked. She paused in front of the charcoal and reached out to grab one package to hand to him. 

”I’d rather do this anyway,” she responded, a hand on her hip, an eyebrow raised. He blushed, wondering if she was actually flirting with him or if that was just his wishful thinking. He glanced at which kind of charcoal she’d selected, then smiled and added it to his small pile of items. “Anything else?” 

“...I don’t know. I guess not,” he shrugged, out of excuses to prolong their conversation. He couldn’t just _leave_ though. 

”O...kay. Well, have a good day.” She turned to go, but without thinking, he reached out and caught her arm gently by the wrist.

“Wait—” Even without the shock of earlier, a similar electric feeling radiated from where he touched. Their eyes locked again, and, for a moment, he thought she might come closer. Her pupils dilated and she look down at where his fingers were clasped around her wrist. She pulled away at the same moment that he realized what he’d done. His fingers opened as she jerked her arm away and stepped further away.

“Excuse you,” she glared, crossing her arms.

”Sorry, I didn’t mean to—” She rolled her eyes. “Before you go...” He opened the back of the pad of sketching paper in his hands and reached in his pocket to pull out a tiny pencil. He glanced up to see her eyes widened when he ripped out a corner from the back page and started scribbling on it.

”What are you doing?” She asked. One of her hands now gripped at her opposite elbow, as she stood awkwardly to the side, watching him.

”Here.” He handed her the scrap of paper with his phone number on it. She took it and looked at it for a moment, before looking back at him uncertainly.

“I don’t even _know_ you.”

”I’m Callum.” He held out his free hand to shake hers. Hesitantly, she reached out to reciprocate the gesture. He pumped their hands up and down a few times before being distracted by evaluating her expression. Her doubt seemed to have faded as her eyes softened and her mouth fell open slightly. His hand lingered in hers before she gently withdrew hers fingers from his. She looked away, and it felt like a spell had broken.

”I’m not taking that, though,” she handed the piece of paper back to him and crossed her arms again.

”Oh—“ he started, in disappointment, heart falling.

”But you _can_ come see me again,” she continued, smiling at him, cheeks a little pink, lilac eyes shining. He felt butterflies churn in his stomach as relief washed over him. “I work every Monday night. Same time.” 

“I’ll see you then,” he grinned back. He glanced at his feet, wary of tripping again, before he turned to go, pleased with her concession. He sighed contentedly as soon as he was sure she was out of earshot.  
  
It wasn’t until he was in the parking lot, toothy grin still spread across his face that he realized he never even got her name.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, if you can't tell at this point, I kind of just let stories take me where they will...and while I fully intended for this whole story to be Callum pining after aloof!Rayla, it is becoming a little bit "secret forbidden romance situation"...I"m just pleased that this AU is giving me a good reason to have these precious dorks doing sappy crap like writing love letters and obsessing over the next time they'll see each other....ah, to be a teenager in love!!! Also, I don't know exactly how Ez became Callum's wingman here but...here we are!! *shrug*
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Eyes brightening in excitement, he nudged Ezran as the bus pulled up to the shopping center.

"This is us, Ez," Callum said, as his brother leapt out of his seat.

"Pet store?" He asked, with a grin spreading across his face. The bus came to a halt and they made their way to the exit, jumping from the bus onto the curb.

"That's what I was thinking," Callum smiled back, glad to see his little brother cheered by something. He was glad that Aunt Amaya had finally let up and let them resume their weekly shopping trips after school every Monday. His successful trip last week after showing her that he truly needed to stock up on some supplies had sealed the deal, he thought. He had missed these little excursions with his brother, and getting out of the house was certainly a welcome change after all of the turmoil of the last month. Ez glanced across the parking lot to check for traffic, then sprinted across to the storefronts. Callum jogged behind him and Ez turned to him as he asked: "Do you mind if we go to the craft store first?"

"Sure, that's fine," he shrugged cheerily, then turned to walk to the right towards the shop. "Didn't you come last week though?" Ezran questioned.

"Uh, yeah, I just...need to give something...to a friend," Callum explained, his attempted nonchalance unmasked by his voice breaking.

"To who?" He asked curiously.

"Uh...a girl." His hand slipped into his jacket pocket, where he'd placed the folded up paper he intended to give to her. He'd been kicking himself all week for not even getting her name, and no matter what he did, he couldn’t get her pretty purple eyes or the sarcastic smile she’d worn last week out of his mind. He wasn't exactly sure when her features started to bleed into his drawings...that night? Maybe the following morning during history class? But, for the past week he'd found himself adding curved horns to the figures he drew and his five-fingered hand had experimented, unbidden, with drawing delicate four-fingered hands. He'd spent the last two days adding little details to the sketch that he planned to give her today, and he wished he knew her name so he could have scrawled it across the top of the page as a title for the image of her leaned over the shopping cart last week. 

He'd debated scribbling his phone number on the little note too, but ultimately decided against it. He wanted her to have it, and given her reluctance to take his number last week, he didn’t want to give her a reason to refuse. He had some concern about whether she might've told him to come back just to get rid of him last week, but in case she  _ did _ actually want to see him, he wanted to be prepared for more than just stuttering like an idiot. "She, uh...the girl...she works here. I met her last week."

"You don't know her name, do you?" Ezran asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Callum’s shoulders drooped dramatically. He paused by one of the displays out on the sidewalk as they approached the door and snagged Ezran's shoulder so that he'd turn to look at him. "Is my hair okay?" Callum asked, swooshing it to the side, out of his eyes.

"Oh," Ezran started, "a  _ girl _ ." Callum rolled his eyes at the smug look on his little brother's face, but continued to look at him expectantly. "Who cares? You look fine," Ez shrugged.

"Ugh, okay,” he tugged at the folded edge of his scarf to flatten it. “Let's go." Callum started towards the large, glass automatic doors, stopping when she walked across the front of the store, just inside the doors, moving towards the left side of the store, obliviously twirling a blue-silk rose stem in her hand. Callum pulled on Ezran's shoulder as he breezed past him, guiding him to the right, towards the stickers where he'd first met her last week. Callum peered around the end-cap at the end of that first aisle to watch her. His breath caught in his throat, noticing her deliberate, dance-like steps as she made her way to the middle of the store. Her bright white hair swayed a little behind her shoulders as she walked, and she seemed to be stepping in time with the cheesy pop song that played over the loudspeaker. He caught a glimpse of the displays of flowers at the center of the store and thought that might be her destination.

"Is that her?" Ezran asked, a little too loudly for Callum's lovesick embarrassment to endure. Callum turned to glare, pressing a finger to his own lips.

"Shh!" He hissed, looking back in her direction, just to be absolutely certain that she hadn't heard.

"Aren't you going to talk to her?" Ez's innocent tone was normally endearing, but Callum's nerves had him frustrated with his nonchalance.

"Yeah, but  _ play it cool _ , Ez. I already embarrassed myself last week." Ezran rolled his eyes and walked past Callum, following in the girl's footsteps to walk over towards the colorful fake flowers.

"Where are you going?" Callum asked, following close behind his brother, who was charging along quite quickly in the white-haired girl's general direction.

"To go talk to her," he said with a matter-of-fact tone. 

Callum’s exclamation died in his throat as the girl in question rounded the corner of an aisle right in front of them, causing Ezran to stop short and Callum to stumble into him. Flailing for a moment, Callum caught a nearby shelf to lean against to regain his balance. Once he had, his heart fluttered in his chest seeing the more upbeat sparkle in her lilac eyes. She seemed happier today than she had been last week, more vibrant. She glanced to Callum in recognition before looking down to warmly smile at Ezran who stood between them. Her arms were clasped behind her back and she leaned slightly to the side as she listened to Ezran, the single braid that had been tucked behind her ear falling in to her face with the tilt of her head

"Hi, I'm Ezran."

"Hi, Ezran," she responded, lips curving upward in a sincere smile.

"My brother really wants to know your name," Ezran said, pointing over his shoulder, causing Callum to visibly cringe, a grimace spreading across his lips. She covered the chuckle that escaped her lips with her hand, fingers curled into a loose fist.

"Rayla," she said to Ez, then looked up at Callum where he stood behind him. 

"Hi," she said to Callum, her voice sweet and inviting. He felt a wave of relief pass over him that she  _ had _ actually expected him to come back and seemed, at least, not  _ un _ happy about it. He wondered though, if her sweet tone might be more in response to Ezran's pleasant disposition as opposed to in response to his bumbling presence.

"Hi," Callum said, simply, hoping that monosyllabic conversation would at least prevent him from tripping over his tongue.

* * *

_ Amused _ wasn't quite the right word to describe how she was feeling about this silly human boy who'd actually come back to see her...mostly because  _ amused _ implied that she simply thought his stammering and stumbling and clumsy flirting last week had just been  _ funny _ , rather than  _ cute _ .

Their two brief conversations had started to invade her thoughts almost as soon as he'd left last week. She'd promptly started cursing her aloof attitude towards this boy, whose green eyes were on her mind as she drove home and whose touch had made her forget how to breathe. Instead of sitting tensely with Ethari through dinner, silently ruminating on the uncertainty of Runaan’s fate, this week, she'd spent dinners and work shifts and classes in a daze, wondering if Callum would actually return to see her and daydreaming about their first encounter. 

She found herself obsessively running through every word they'd exchanged all week long. Over and over again, she replayed the way he'd tripped and the way he'd  _ very _ clearly manufactured an excuse to talk to her again and the way he'd apologized for interrupting her and the way he'd smiled at her so widely before leaving the store. The hardest thing to stop thinking about, though, was the way his fingers had lingered in hers when he'd shook her hand after telling her his name. Ethari had asked her once or twice what she was smiling at when her thoughts strayed to the way her skin had tingled when Callum had touched her, and she'd openly sighed in Ethari's presence during dinner on Thursday night when she remembered how open and attentive Callum's eyes had seemed when she first looked at him as he'd stooped down to help her pick up the stickers. She'd been moderating her expression a little more closely since that sigh.

Late at night, though, alone in her room, she fantasized all she wanted to. She imagined him reaching for her hand, not like when he'd impulsively grabbed her wrist or like the polite way he'd shook her hand, but purposely, deliberately. She smiled thinking about him holding her hand and wondered if his touch would still feel so electric if it lingered for longer than a moment. She laid awake thinking about what she'd say if he did come back and, last night, her mind turned to worry about whether or not he would return to see her. 

All week, she'd regretted giving the little slip of neatly written numbers back to him. She'd only hesitated in taking it because she was unsure how her family would feel about her talking to a human. Of course, she casually interacted with humans all the time at her job here, but she wasn't friends with any of them. Human friends seemed like a stretch and dating a human...the impossibility of it made her chest tighten with longing. She wondered at the bittersweet heartache that had consumed her, eliminating her appetite and taking all her focus. Her longing to know him was intense, heart torn in half by the pleasure of infatuation and the pain of distance. As she thought back through their interaction, though, she was pleased and comforted that he seemed to also want to know her.

Somehow, her late night musings yesterday had resulted in the positively sappy note, sitting folded up in her pocket. She'd spent last night perched on her window sill, bent over the tiny folded note, writing, and rewriting, and erasing, and doodling, and erasing some more by the light of the moon, until she was satisfied. Now that he was right in front of her, though, she did question her judgment at 3am when she'd put the finishing touches on the note. Had she really quoted  _ poems _ ?  _ How _ many hearts had she littered across the page? Would he be able to tell the difference between how she wrote the ones and the sevens in her phone number?

She felt the note burning a hole in her pocket as she observed Callum now, awkwardly leaned against the shelf he'd caught a moment ago to hold himself up. Maybe she  _ was _ amused by him...or at least by the effort he was putting forth to seem suave at the moment. She realized he was waiting for her to speak.

"I wasn't sure if you'd actually come back," she remarked, glancing between Callum and his little brother as she spoke.

"I...I had to see you again," he looked sideways as he started to speak but his eyes ended up fixed on hers, a flirtatious smile across his lips. She wondered if her face was really changing colors or if it only felt like it was.

"And...that's my cue," Ezran said with a groan. "I'll be at the pet store Callum," he turned sharply, making his way back towards the entrance. He waved over his shoulder. "Bye Rayla. Nice to meet you."

"You too," she called with a smile. When she looked back to Callum, he had stood up straight. He took a step towards her and she tucked the braid that had fallen from behind her ear back into place.

"So...Rayla, huh? That’s...that’s a nice name,” he said, eyes half-lidded, head angled towards her. She felt her cheeks color a little more and she looked away. “I can't believe I forgot to ask you last week." He laughed a little.

"Sorry," she chuckled a little, spurred by his nervous energy. "I didn’t realize either. I would've told you. I was...distracted."

"By what?" He asked inquisitively.

She pursed her lips, deciding how to answer the question, caught between avoiding a serious answer, or spilling her guts about her family's stress over the past several weeks, or openly admitting how smitten she’d become over the past week. She chose the latter, optimistic about him reciprocating her interest and unsure about unloading all of her problems on him. Plus, if she actually gave him the note in her back pocket, he’d know soon enough anyway.

"By you," she said simply, pushing herself to look directly in his eyes despite the urge to glance away nervously. She saw a flash of realization move across his eyes.

"Oh," he responded, eyebrows popping up and color spreading up from below his collar to his cheeks as he blinked away nervously. His eyes suddenly brightened. "Oh!' He then exclaimed when an idea seemed to dawn on him. He dug into his pocket and his fingers emerged holding out a piece of paper folded similarly to the one in her back pocket. A single corner of her mouth twitched upward in a smile seeing how the gesture and even the note itself matched hers. 

"This is for you," he said. "And don't worry...it's not my number." She reached out to take the note from him and when their thumbs touched across the surface of the folded note, they both froze, eyes locking onto each other’s. She broke the connection first, glancing away as she dug into her own back pocket.

"I have something for you too." Instead of holding the note out, she reached out to press it into his hand, pleased to feel the warmth against her fingers. "It...it  _ is _ my number." She looked back at him and watched as a grin replaced the shy smile he’d been wearing. His fingers had bent around her palm, holding her hand there. She inhaled a shallow breath, pleased to know that his lingering touch was more like a tiny fire than the spark that had been on her mind all week. "Callum, I...I have to get back to work.” She started to excuse herself reluctantly. She pressed the note insistently into his palm before pulling her hand away.

"Oh, uh, of course,” he nodded, looking down at the note in his hand. He glanced back at the note she still held between two fingers. She wondered if his smile came from noticing the similarity in how they’d folded their notes.

"Text me?" She said, stepping a little closer. 

"Absolutely," he said, the grin fading into a solemn expression more befitting of swearing an oath then planning a text message. She turned to start to walk away with a little smirk across her mouth.

"Bye Callum," she said over her shoulder, turning to wink at him as she walked away. She let her own goofy grin spread across her face as she rounded the corner, squeezing the little folded up piece of paper in her hand tightly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I debated jumping right into the flirty and sappy text conversations, but I really *really* wanted to write these two seeing the notes they'd given each other and waiting with baited breath for the first texts to come through...so I wrote it!
> 
> This is morphing into more than I originally anticipated and I'm excited to keep writing!!
> 
> Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who commented and kudosed for the first couple of chapters! I really, really appreciate it!

Almost as soon as she’d turned her back to start to walk away from Callum, she heard her name over the radio in her ear, telling her she needed to hop on her register. She groaned with even more disdain than she usually harbored for having to ring up customers. Sharply turning the corner back towards the front of the store, she tucked his note in her back pocket, in the same spot where she’d kept the note she’d given to him. She’d been hoping to immediately sneak into the empty stockroom to read it.

She plastered a cheery smile across her face while she absentmindedly processed customers through, silently hoping that maybe Callum had taken a detour to buy something and would end up smiling at her from the end of the queue line. She was disappointed.

Finally,  _ finally, _ there was no one left in line, so she could silently slip away from her register. She kept to the outer edges of the store as she made her way back to the stockroom now. Her fingers retrieved the folded up paper from her pocket and she squeezed it in her hand again. The automatic lights in the stockroom flickered to life as she flung open the double doors and she breathed a sigh of relief that it was actually empty back there like she’d hoped. She rounded a corner behind a pallet of boxes to sit on an overturned crate and brushed her hair back so that the loose strands that had fallen in her face were corralled by her horns. She tucked her braid back behind her ear again too.

With a deep breath, she unfolded the note, prepared to rapidly scan the words he’d written. Her mouth fell open for a moment in surprise, breath rushing out of her lungs, seeing not words, but a drawing of her. In it, she was bent over the handle of one of the store’s carts, a foot propped up on the bar that ran across the bottom. Her image smirked back at her from the page, wearing the sarcastic smile she’d been sporting for nearly the entirety of their first meeting. She briefly wondered if it had been odd for him to draw her hands with four instead of five fingers folded across the handle or if he thought her horns--he’d hadn’t  _ quite _ gotten their curve or the lighter purple lines on them right--were strange. She traced a finger along the only words on the page in the bottom right corner.  _ I can’t wait to see you again _ . The sloppiness of his writing was noticeable compared with the careful lines of his sketch. She smiled and became aware of just how much her face had flushed. The attention he’d must’ve paid to her last week was clear in the sketch’s quality. It was more flattering than  _ anything _ he could have written. Confident she was still alone, she pressed the open paper to her chest, breathing in deeply and grinning to herself. The only thing missing was his phone number. She wished her phone would buzz.

She rolled her eyes at hearing her name come across the radio again. She took a moment to carefully fold along the pre-existing creases in the note before sticking it back in her pocket. As she stood and made her way back out of the stockroom and towards the front of the store, she pulled her phone out of her pocket to be sure she hadn’t missed a notification. Impatiently, she shoved it back into her pocket and the anticipation she would feel all night began.

As she kept working, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the things she knew about Callum so far, few though they may be. When another teenage boy in a blue jacket approached her register, she felt her face heat up again first in excitement, then embarrassment when she realized it wasn’t him. She checked her phone again after that customer had left. 

Later, she worked on straightening up the sketchbooks and notepads and couldn’t help but wrack her brain trying to remember which one he’d had in his arms when he’d asked her to show him where the charcoal was. Still no buzz.

A glimmer of red on the ground at the end of an aisle right before they closed gave her another flicker of hope. Illogical as it was, when she saw it, she hoped that, maybe, somehow, he’d dropped his scarf on the ground after having returned to explain why he hadn’t texted her yet. Her face reddened when she saw it was just a sheet of felt. The color on her cheeks deepened when she looked at her phone again, finding no text message waiting for her.

She practically stomped to her car when the store closed and her shift was over, eyes glaring at her phone, willing a notification to appear. 

Finally,  _ finally _ , her phone buzzed, not once, but twice, as she shut her car door.

_ Hey _

_ It’s Callum. _

* * *

Callum had waited until he was finally,  _ finally _ back in his bedroom to open the note.

It had remained in his pocket as he’d followed Ezran through the aisles of the pet store. Ez insisted on naming each creature they walked past, embellishing entire personalities and dramatic backstories for each little animal. Callum had told himself that he was going to listen carefully in order to report back to Aunt Amaya about what sort of pet they should get Ez for his rapidly approaching 12th birthday, but the note in his pocket was all he’d been able to think about.  _ Rayla’s  _ note. 

He’d considered pulling it out once they boarded the bus back home as well, but he didn’t. He knew the questions from Ez would be never-ending if he pulled it out in front of him. Plus, he didn’t know exactly  _ what _ the note said. The way she’d winked at him and her saying she’d been distracted  _ by him _ when they first met gave him hope, but a little kernel of doubt crept in about how quickly she’d excused herself to go back to work. Maybe she’d written the note to let him down easy. Maybe she’d told him to text her so that she wouldn’t have to say it to his face. 

But  _ maybe _ the note was even better than he dared to hope. Maybe she’d spent all week thinking of him like he’d been thinking of her. Maybe she’d found herself wondering about what he was doing at odd hours, like he had been wondering about her. Maybe she wanted to know him too.

Either way, he didn’t really want a witness while he read it.

So, he’d immediately bolted upstairs when he and Ez arrived home. He dug the note out of his pocket as he collapsed backwards onto his bed. He held the note above his head, turning it over and over in his fingers, noticing how similar it felt in his hands to the one he’d given to her. He grinned when he noticed a couple of tiny, tiny hearts drawn in the bottom corner--a good sign. He took in a shaky breath and started to unfold it.

_ Callum, _

_ I can’t stop thinking about the other night. I know we barely talked, but I just can’t get you out of my head. I wish I’d said thank you for helping me pick up the stickers, and I wish I’d told you how glad I was that you found me again to “ask me where the charcoal was”. (I saw you with it in your hand earlier. Good try.)  _

_ I can’t stop wondering if I imagined that feeling when our hands touched...did you feel it too?  _

_ I really, really hope you actually come back to see me, and I really, really wish that I had just taken your number when you offered it. _

_ Text me. xxx-xxx-xxxx _

_ -Rayla _

He sighed out the breath he’d held as he read. His eyes flew back over the words, once, twice, three times, making sure his relief was warranted. Heart skipping knowing that she  _ did _ like him and that she  _ did _ want to know him, and even that she  _ did _ feel the same connection when they’d touched, he grinned at the note before zooming in on the details. He looked at the hearts and pretty cursive writing that framed the page, squinting closely to read the lines of...lyrics? Poetry? He rotated the page to read each line along the border of the note. He held the note to his chest, marveling for a moment that the note had aligned with his most far-flung hopes. Then, excited by her reciprocated interest, he bolted upright and lunged for the pocket of his backpack to grab his phone.

_ Hey  _

_ It’s Callum. _

Simple enough. He spent a few seconds staring at the screen, heart a little giddy at seeing a read-receipt pop up almost immediately. Then...nothing. He watched for the little pulsating ellipsis icon to pop up, but it didn’t. He frowned.

For the next several minutes he refreshed the same three apps over and over again, ready to jump at any notification that popped up. Mind numb and stomach anxious, he finally tapped back to the message he’d sent, rechecking the number he’d sent it to, wondering if he should add another message. He stared at the screen a moment more before abandoning his phone on his nightstand to get ready for bed. His stomach was in knots as he brushed his teeth. He felt a little foolish for thinking that she’d just immediately text him back. What time did the store close anyway? Plus, it’d taken him a long time to text her in the first place... He felt his face warm up with this private embarrassment.

But, finally,  _ finally _ , just as he’d climbed under his blanket, two buzzes rattled next to his ear.

_ Hi Callum. _

_ Took you long enough. _


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ready for cute and cringy teen text message conversations?? I sure am!!
> 
> Also, what's this? A semi-regular posting schedule?? I'm going to try to update this fic every weekend. No absolutes here friends, but that's my goal at least.
> 
> I am curious if my formatting of the texting works...I wanted them offset a little bit and this seemed a pretty simple and clear way to do it.
> 
> Enjoy these dorks getting to know each other!! Setting up some conflict here too a bit...originally this fic was going to just be Callum wooing Rayla for like 3 chapters, but obviously, it has grown.
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Also, there *may* be an Ez-centric one-shot coming later this week that fits in this AU for the last day of [Ezran Appreciation Week over on Tumblr!](https://raayllum.tumblr.com/post/632073081448529920/welcome-everyone-to-the-hesitant-scheduling-and)

> _R: Hi Callum._
> 
> _R: Took you long enough._

He held his phone to his chest for a moment, feeling his face flush and heart jump. He could finally, _finally_ talk to her. To Rayla.

> _C: Sorry_
> 
> _C: I waited til I got home to read your note_

Callum smiled seeing that the message was immediately read again and watched impatiently as the little gray ellipsis flickered across the screen as she typed, figuring she must’ve been typing a lot by the minutes that passed as he watched. Breathing became difficult.

> _R: It’s okay._

The icon popped up again briefly.

> _R: I liked your drawing. Put that charcoal to good use, I see._

He was glad he and Ez didn’t share a room anymore so that there was no one to see him blush. He decided to downplay how consumed he’d been with perfecting the drawing before he gave it to her.

> _C: Oh, thanks. It was just a little doodle I did on the bus lol_
> 
> _R: Really? It looks just like me...got the horns a lil wrong tho._

His cheeks burned in embarrassment now. She was probably kidding, right? Or, at least, she wouldn’t be offended? He couldn’t be sure, so he apologized anyway. He had to admit he _was_ a little glad she’d been the first one to broach the subject of their differences, though.

> _C: Oh_
> 
> _C: I’ve never drawn an elf before, sorry_
> 
> _R: I’m just kidding, sorry._

Her message popped up just as he sent his little apology, and he felt a little better. He reciprocated her appreciation for his note.

> _C: Your note was nice_
> 
> _R: Didn’t come on too strong? Lol_

He was a little surprised at the vulnerability there and it made him wish he’d been more honest about his obsession with getting the drawing just right. He reassured her before giving her a little bit of vulnerability back.

> _C: Nah._
> 
> _C: I wasn’t sure if you actually want me to come back_
> 
> _C: *wanted_
> 
> _R: Oh_
> 
> _R: Well I’m glad you did._

Callum’s mind wandered back to the note, then back to the tingling warmth of her touch when she’d pressed it into his hand. She _had_ asked if he felt it too in the note, hadn’t she?

> _C: I felt it too_
> 
> _C: Just so you know_
> 
> _R: What?_

Grabbing it off his nightstand, he unfolded the note again and leaned up to lay it flat against the surface, underneath his lamp. He snapped a picture of her pretty, rounded handwriting where she’d asked if he’d felt something when their hands met and sent it along.

> _R: Oh_
> 
> _R: good_

He watched as the ellipsis icon pulsed on his screen again. It disappeared and reappeared a few times again. Even though the wait for her next message was shorter than the wait at the start of the conversation, his chest felt much tighter.

> _R: So, are we gonna keep our monday night dates?_

He grinned and hastily typed his response. _Dates!_

> _C: Sure haha. Can they be longer than two minutes?_
> 
> _R: Uhhh ok??? How about three minutes? That work for you?_
> 
> _C: I was thinking more like four??_

She sent some laughing emojis that went very well with his chuckles too. A little bit of courage swelled in his chest with her teasing.

> _C: Are you busy saturday?_
> 
> _R: Yeah._

Oh. 

> _C: Oh ok_
> 
> _C: Monday then_
> 
> _R: Yeah monday._

He couldn’t decide if he was reading too much into her being busy. He couldn’t just leave it there, though.

> _C: Are you going to bed soon?_
> 
> _R: I can stay a little while._
> 
> _R: *up a_
> 
> _C: Wanna play a game?_

* * *

She smiled. She didn’t want to stop talking to him either. Wouldn’t hurt to play a _little_ coy, though. She paced as she typed away, tickled that he was responding almost instantaneously now.

> _R: Uhhhh I guess?_
> 
> _C: Ok. I’m gonna ask you five questions_
> 
> _C: Then you get to ask me five_
> 
> _C: Okay?_
> 
> _R: That doesn’t really sound like a *game* lol_

Rayla hoped her teasing translated via text. She reread it once before sending it to be more sure that it did. She received his next message almost immediately after sending hers.

> _R: But if you just want an excuse to ask me some questions, that’s fine._
> 
> _C: *shrug emoji* I wanna know more about you_
> 
> _R: Ok. Ask away._
> 
> _C: Question 1: how long have you been working there? I used to go a lot and I’ve never seen you before_

Ouch. November. It’d been right before Runaan had been called away. She and Ethari had said goodbye the morning after her first shift. But how was Callum supposed to know that something so simple was a sore spot?

> _R: A few months I guess. I think I started in november._

She didn’t think. She knew. 

> _C: Your turn_
> 
> _R: Why’d you stop coming?_

He couldn’t know how intrusive his question had felt, but it occurred to her as soon as she hit ‘send’ that, on the surface, hers was much more personal.

> _C: We had to move in with my aunt and it was kind of crazy for a while...so I didn’t have a chance_

Ouch, again. Ouch for him, though, this time. “Had to” didn’t sound good. It raised more questions. Maybe for another time.

> _C: What’s your family like?_

_Ouch_. Again, he couldn’t have known.

> _R: Pass_
> 
> _C: Ok_
> 
> _C: Uh_
> 
> _C: Revised question: how old are you?_

Phew. Easy. She sat in her window sill, where she’d spent last night drafting her note.

> _R: 17. You?_
> 
> _C: 16_
> 
> _C: 2-2...ok_
> 
> _C: Question 3: what are all the little quotes around the edges of your note?_

She smiled. She considered playing dumb like she had when he’d told her he felt the spark too so that he’d send her little pictures of the note again, but elected instead to evade the question.

> _R: You’re gonna have to figure that one out on your own ;)_
> 
> _C: Damn. Ok. Your turn_

The satisfaction she felt at having occasion to send him a winky face felt a little silly, but she grinned to herself all the same.

> _R: Do you like school or are you one of those slacker-artist-bad boy types?_
> 
> _C: Oh bad boy, for sure ;)_

_Oh,_ she thought. Clearly, he was joking, but the feeling of _getting a winky face back_ was almost as nice as the feeling of sending one.

> _C: School’s okay. I like to read_
> 
> _R: And you don’t know what the quotes on my note are from???_

The googling she’d done to find them was _embarrassing_.

> _C: Should I count that as a question?_
> 
> _C: lol_
> 
> _R: Ha. Ha._

She was grateful for the façade just texting him let her maintain while she grinned like an idiot at her phone.

> _C: Fine, fine, I won’t count it_
> 
> _C: Question 4: if you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be?_
> 
> _R: Moonberries_
> 
> _C: I don’t think I’ve ever had one_
> 
> _R: What??? How is that possible???_
> 
> _C: Ok, two half questions definitely make a whole ;)_

Okay, she thought, maybe he was laying it on a _little_ thick with the winky faces. She wasn’t about to complain though.

> _C: Question 5: can I see you sooner than monday?_

She had fibbed a little to him about being busy on Saturday. There was just no way, though, that she’d be able to explain away a date with some random _human_ boy. At least not yet. If Runaan were home, it’d be _really_ impossible, but maybe if she eased Ethari into the idea...

> _R: Depends._

She could fib again. Maybe tell a little white lie to Ethari about rehearsal or work some evening this week...

> _R: When?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Also, come find me on tumblr!! I'd love to follow more mutual Rayllum fans!! [My handle is the same.](https://blutopaz15.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is so fun to write!! I swear, some of this dialogue just wrote itself! Trying to get a few of the backstory dots connected here without straight-up paragraphs of exposition...
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

The fib, she decided that night, needed to be that she was working. It was believable—she  _ did _ sometimes work on Thursdays—and it allowed her to be  _ just _ vague enough so she could say that,  _ technically _ , she didn’t lie. Plus, she could delay the not-quite-lie until just after school on Thursday—perfect for avoiding questions.

She’d fired off a text to Ethari after school, saying simply that she “had to go to work tonight,” letting him make the assumption that she’d picked up a shift.

Technically, Rayla  _ was _ currently at work, after all. In the parking lot, at least. 

Her phone buzzed three times in rapid succession, and she couldn’t help the grin that broke across her face or the way her eyes rolled when she read the notification.

> C: How’s this one: 
> 
> C: If I could rearrange the alphabet, I’d put u and i together
> 
> C: ;) ;) ;)
> 
> R: Please. Spare me. -_-

She’d been grinning as she typed her response. Her teasing about his not-so-smooth flirting had earned her an endless string of pickup lines for review over the last couple of days. 

That had been one of the  _ least _ cringe-worthy, but she wouldn’t tell him that. Why break the trend of just continuing to tease him no matter how sweet  _ or _ stupid what he sent was? She’d been looking forward to being subjected to whichever one he’d landed on—sweet or stupid or  _ both _ —as she imagined him leaning towards her when she finally got to hear his voice again. She was sure his green eyes would glimmer just like they had when he’d chuckled shortly after learning her name on Monday and that he’d smile again, too. She  _ wasn’t _ sure if, with  _ all _ of that, she’d be able to temper the cheesy grin that had come over for her every line he’d sent her so far, even if he picked the worst one yet to actually say to her.

Her expression soured just after the read receipt popped up, though, as worry crept in about her plans for this afternoon ruining the little cloud of bliss she—they?—had been floating on all week. She hadn’t  _ exactly _ been forthcoming with Callum either, letting him believe that she was already scheduled at the store when he’d told her he was free after school on Thursday. As far as he knew, she was just going to take her break when he got there. She hoped he’d see their little adventure as a fun surprise instead of as an effort to hide whatever  _ this _ was...which, of course, it  _ was _ .

She glanced at another notification. 

> C: One stop away btw

As she grew more anxious about these half-truths she’d been telling all week, she wondered if the lying might not be entirely one-sided. She heard the echo of Runaan’s voice in the back of her head when he’d been uneasy about her new job here at the center of town: _There’s a_ reason _why elves and humans don’t mix, Rayla._ Certainly, human children were told something similar, right? True, his brother hadn’t reacted to the fact that she was an elf when they met, but she couldn’t imagine that _this_ was normal to Callum or his family when, to her knowledge, there was pretty much _no one,_ elf or human, who would consider their _infatuation_ with one another normal. Did he have to lie in order to be able to come see her, too? She couldn’t imagine that he’d lied _to_ _her_ about anything at this point though. _That_ was certainly one-sided. 

It was just tricky...how could she let on that she was sneaking around to see him without betraying the reasons she was compelled to hide it? And then what if he was offended? What if he and his family harbored none of the hatred between elves and humans that she’d been raised with and the prejudice was one-sided, just like her lying? 

It wasn’t possible that  _ both  _ of them felt drawn to each other enough to ignore it...right?

Either way, she didn’t want him to piece together that she was lying about him before she could explain in person just how much their differences didn’t matter to her.

She saw what she assumed to be Callum’s bus pull up caddy-corner from the store.

She opened her glovebox to find  _ more _ lies there. At least they were  _ purely _ for his benefit, for his comfort, though, she told herself. These lies came in the form of a hat and mittens. The mittens could wait, she thought, placing them between her knees. She pulled the beanie on over her horns, though, adjusting it to be sure it covered her the tips of her ears too. It’d be easier for her to pretend to be human, she figured, than it would be for him to pretend to be an elf. Just in case. 

She smiled and put the car in drive seeing his red scarf—did he always wear that thing?—flutter in the blustery weather outside. Her heart fluttered a little too as he trotted across the road in the direction of the craft store, and she pulled up to the curb, lowering the passenger-side window.

“Hi,” she called when he seemed not to notice her in the car beside him. He looked up, paused, then blinked at her.

“Oh. Hey. I thought…?” He pointed to the craft store, a question in his eyes. She couldn’t tell if the pink in his cheeks was from the wind or being caught off guard. He quickly shifted from startled to smiling, though. She grinned back.

“Change of plans. Get in.”

—

How  _ exactly _ was it possible to miss someone so acutely when you’d only actually spent a total of five minutes with her?

Callum wasn’t sure, but he was sure that the weight that Rayla’s piercing purple eyes lifted from his shoulders was a  _ relief _ . Her eyes, so open and knowing—like they could see through to his very  _ soul _ —together with the shy smile...and her voice! Just as sweet and inviting as when she’d greeted him Monday night… He had to force a blink to snap out of it. 

Realizing that they weren’t meeting in the store at all, he climbed into her passenger seat and shut the door behind him. They lingered there a moment without driving off. Their eyes met again for a moment before they mutually, shyly, looked each other up and down. Something was off, Callum thought.

“What’s with the hat?” He asked, tilting his head to the side. He’d thought about complimenting it instead of asking, but he thought a compliment might accidentally imply that he had some aversion to her horns or ears...which he  _ certainly _ didn’t have. A voice in the back of his head told him that was almost certainly why she was wearing the hat in the first place, though: to hide her horns. He’d  _ wanted _ to see them, though, since that’d been her only criticism of his sketch and he hadn’t been brave enough to ask for a picture of her. 

“Uh...it’s cold.” She shrugged, and he blinked at her again, this time in doubt. The heat was blasting in her car so hot that her cheeks seemed to be perpetually pink. Her smile shifted into a smirk, though, before he could dig any deeper about the grey knit cap. “Well?”

“What?” He looked around, smoothing his hair down nervously.

“I might  _ technically _ be the one picking you up here,” she teased, looking at him expectantly, “but I’m  _ waiting _ .”

“Oh, right.” He cleared his throat and smiled back before dropping his face into a neutral expression. He hoped to convey  _ flirtation _ as he looked back up at her. “Are you a library book?” He started. She just blinked at him, her eyebrows popping up. “Because I can’t help checking you out.” Finger guns seemed appropriate. He threw in a wink for good measure. She scoffed, he  _ thought _ , to mask a giggle.

“Oh. Okay. I see. I’ve made a terrible mistake. When’s the next bus?” Her words might’ve been cutting, but the unbidden curve that came to her lips as she spoke was everything Callum needed to know. “Ready?” She asked, the car beginning to slowly roll along towards the exit of the shopping center before he could answer. He nodded when she glanced in his direction.

“Where are we going?” He asked. He liked that while she drove, he could watch her without the pressure of her staring back. His eyes strayed from the braid hanging in front of her ear, to the collar of her teal sweater, to her elbow on the center console, before his gaze settled on her hand. Her  _ warm _ hand, he remembered from Monday night. 

“I know it’s kind of cold, but there’s a park I thought we could go to? It’s...uh...on the human side of town. You’ve probably been before.” He looked back up from her hand to her shiny white hair hanging out beneath the slouchy grey hat.

“Thus, the hat?” He asked cautiously, unsure about asking again until he saw a glimmer of amusement in her eyes when she looked to him.

“Thus, the hat,” she confirmed. “I have mittens, too.” She held up a hand to show him her four wiggling fingers. He inhaled to screw up some courage and reached to capture the fingers in his. 

“You...you don’t have to do that,” he said soberly when she looked at him and their now clasped hands, wide-eyed. His heart skipped a beat in reaction to both the warmth of her hand and the pang of guilt that she felt like she had to hide under a hat and mittens with him. She looked back to the road.

“Well...it’s cold. So, I might as well,” she shrugged and he thought she might withdraw her fingers, but instead she  _ squeezed his hand _ . His stomach flipped.

He was still concerned though. She didn’t think she had to do that for him, did she? The fingers and the horns and the ears and the lilac eyes...sure, he’d  _ noticed _ them—certainly the  _ eyes _ —but they didn’t  _ detract _ from his admitted attraction to her. And, sure, it was  _ unconventional _ for him to feel this way about an elf, but he wasn’t going to let that  _ stop  _ him—convention and prejudice be damned. Surely, this was the same conclusion she’d arrived at, right? The same conclusion she’d assumed  _ he’d _ arrived at?

“Rayla...you know that it’s fine that you’re an elf, right?” He spoke, and she took a breath to respond. He cut her off, though, thinking better of his word choice. It wasn’t just  _ fine _ ; it’s a part of who she  _ is _ . She’s better than  _ fine _ . “Wait, wait...that came out wrong. I mean, I like you even though…” He stopped again.  _ Even though?  _ Being an elf wasn’t something  _ wrong  _ with her. “Ugh! No! Try again.” He paused for a breath.

“You like me?” She glanced quickly at him before looking back ahead of the car, and her eyes were all sparkly again, despite his bumbling through. He thought his heart might stop. He glanced back down to their still-joined fingers.

“Oh. Uh. Yeah.” He said, feeling color rise to his cheeks. “Was that not clear?” He cringed when his voice cracked.

“Extremely,” she smirked, making eye contact for a longer moment now. He couldn’t tell if her cheeks were still just pink from heat in the car or if she might be blushing too. He hoped it was the latter.

“Good.” He refocused. It  _ had _ been important, what he’d started to say. “Anyway, what I was trying to say was—”

“Callum, it’s fine. I know what you’re trying to say.” She withdrew her hand from his in order to turn the steering wheel. He felt the absence. “I was, uh, actually worried about the same thing. You being human, I mean.”

“You were?”

“Yeah.” She looked straight ahead while she explained. “I was worried you wouldn’t want to be seen in public together...you know, for more than  _ two minutes. _ ” He returned her little smile and chuckle when her eyes cut to him for a fraction of a second. “And then I was worried about what Ethari—or worse,  _ Runaan _ —would think if they knew about us, too…so I kind of had to lie to Ethari.” He stored away a few puzzle pieces about her family, remembering how she’d passed on the question on Monday night. “And I guess I lied to you in the process here too, so...sorry?”

“About what?” Any lie had been so insignificant that it wasn’t even on his radar, let alone his mind.

“About what we were doing this afternoon,” she clarified. Callum had assumed it was truly just a change in plans.

“Oh. Who cares? That’s fine.” He’d anticipated seeing her for a mere fifteen minutes—still three times the amount of time they’d spent together so far—but her lie seemed to allow for  _ even more _ time to hang out. He wasn’t complaining.

“I thought  _ you _ might care. I thought you might be...offended.” Her profile, at least, looked upset, even if he couldn’t see her entire expression. 

“Oh. That you have to hide me?” He felt his lighthearted smile fall a little. He hadn’t been exactly forthcoming about her either...not even with Ez. All of these issues...they weren’t  _ her _ fault. Or his. 

She nodded. “Elves and humans...it’s...tricky,” she sighed. 

“Yeah. It is,” he agreed. “I didn’t really  _ lie _ to my aunt, but she definitely doesn’t know why I  _ really _ went to the store.” Callum shrugged, hoping that this tidbit might alleviate the guilt she was clearly feeling. There were bridges to cross on  _ both _ ends.

She was silent for a long moment.

“I don’t...I don’t feel the way they do,” she said, unnecessarily. That was already clear to Callum.

“Me either,” he said, offering her a small, reassuring smile when she turned to look at him.

“Good.” This time  _ she _ reached for his hand and  _ he _ squeezed back.

“Good.” That was  _ definitely _ a blush on her cheek this time. He let his thumb run against hers. Warmth bubbled in his chest when she reciprocated the tiny gesture. He hoped his smile conveyed flirtation again rather than the dumb-struck, head-over-heels way she made him feel.

“So...is this going to be some kind of secret, forbidden romance situation?” He asked. She was absolutely grinning and bright-eyed when she turned to him. He hadn’t even realized they’d arrived at their destination until she let go of his hand to throw the car into park.

“Romance, huh?” She asked, adding a raised eyebrow to her expression.

“Well...that’s what this is, isn’t it?” He looked to the side, face growing warm again. He brought the hand she’d just released up to the back of his head and itched there nervously. Her smile grew a little lopsided, remaining just as  _ brilliant _ .

She winked and pushed her door open as she responded. “I suppose so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a little carried away with Callum's PoV this chapter, so I'll try to spend a little more time in Rayla's head next go-around! Even *fluffier* fluff next time around!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Sorry for the delay in posting! Both this chapter and the last chapter of my other ongoing fic got a little out of hand length-wise!
> 
> There are SO MANY fun things in this chapter, y'all! I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!
> 
> As always, I would LOVE any comments you may feel inspired to leave for me!

Callum still felt a little fluttery as he shut the passenger-side door and turned to survey the familiar park. Despite the gray sky and the chilly wind, he couldn’t help but feel all warm and tingly at the confirmation of their blossoming _romance_. 

_That_ was new for him. The burning in his cheeks he felt reminded him of mornings spent his freshman year loitering by Claudia’s locker, but there was a new feeling there too of _relief_ and _fullness_ that came with knowing that Rayla was on-board...in this _with_ him. That feeling was _nothing_ like the h _eartache_ that he’d associated with crushes before. But then...if Rayla liked him _back_ , could he even really call it _crush_? _Crushed_ certainly _had_ described whatever it was he’d felt towards Claudia, but not _Rayla._ No, she made him feel... _light_ and _whole._

Vaguely, he became aware that Rayla had appeared at his side, saying his name. “Callum? Earth to Callum?” Her smile was sideways and curious, her head tilted to the side a bit. He was shaken out of his thoughts by the little wave of happiness that came with hearing her say his name.

“Oh, sorry.” He found himself staring back at those brilliant purple eyes of hers, briefly obscured by her hair blowing across her face from a sudden gust of wind. “What?” He asked, certain that he must have missed something she said, as she pressed a soft ball of crumpled grey fabric to his chest.

“Hold these for me?” She pushed them against him a little more insistently, her knuckles connecting with his ribs. His hand wrapped around hers again when he took hold of the mittens she’d alluded to earlier, and he couldn’t be sure if _time_ had slowed down or if she was really that slow to let her hand slip away from his again. She glanced away shyly when her fingers finally fell away from him, but her bashful expression was quickly replaced with a toothy grin. He shoved the mittens into the same pocket of his jacket that he’d kept her note tucked in since getting it.

“Just tell me if you see anybody else,” She yanked her hat down to cover the tips of her ears then took off to run toward the large, empty playground opposite of the parking lot. When she reached the bright blue play set, his eyes widened a little at how effortlessly she leapt upward to grasp onto the monkey bars there, pulling herself up to sit at the top of them with ease. She tapped on the rung next to her as he approached, a metallic sound ringing through the cold air. 

_Here goes_ , he gulped, climbing up the rungs carefully. With white-knuckled focus, in hopes of preventing embarrassment, he tried to put out of his mind the many, _many_ times he’d ended up frozen in fear at this very same park, on this very same playground on his way to _exactly_ where she’d positioned herself. The last time had been an ill-fated, pre-teen attempt to impress Claudia that had ended with him freezing at the top, too terrified to crawl across to where Rayla now sat. When he’d backed down, feet nervously dangling down to each rung below, the only thing worse than Soren’s snickering had been the patronizing pity written across Claudia’s face. The way she’d swatted at her brother, telling him to _be nice_ , didn’t help.

Now though, Rayla just looked at him with a gentle, patient smile, watching him clamber towards her. He couldn’t deny the glimmer of amusement in her face when his foot slipped as he reached the curve in the equipment, but her sarcasm had such a charming undercurrent to it that he couldn’t say he minded. Somehow, it didn’t make him feel small.

“Graceful,” she snarked. He might not have liked the comment from any one else, but just the fact that he had her attention made the fluttery feeling return again. 

“You made it look _easy_ ,” he tried to tease back. He watched her now, sitting there with such poise, as he regained his footing and swung his legs over the edge of the bars to sit next to her. Misjudging his weight, he exclaimed as he leaned back just a _bit_ too far, finding her arm pressed against his back to catch him. Time seemed to stand still again as she righted him. He felt his face go scarlet as she withdrew and they both averted their eyes from each other. “Uh...thanks.”

Callum found her still purposely looking away when he turned back to her. He watched her fingers tug through a loose piece of hair, and had to hold back a fond sigh. It wasn’t _just_ that she was beautiful—and she was: delicate features that scrunched and shifted revealingly with every expression, and shiny hair that swung around her shoulders as she moved, and those _eyes_ —but she was just so...vibrant. Those eyes—sparkling with sass and sweetness and sarcasm—helped with that bit—the _vibrancy_ , he thought. Her glance cut back to him now. She traded the strand of hair for the little braid hanging in front of her other ear as she spoke, turning back to him at the end of her next question.

“So...did you ever figure out all the quotes on my note?” There was a teasing, knowing lilt to her voice and he couldn’t help but think that he’d be content if she did nothing _but_ tease him.

“Oh! No, I forgot,” he said. He was quick to correct-course when he saw the hurt flicker across her eyes briefly before she’d managed to reset her expression. “I’ve been...uh...a little distracted. And busy. Ya know...texting you 24/7?” He smirked at her, mimicking the way she’d winked at him in the car. 

He felt like he’d won a prize when her cheeks flushed again. “Oh. Yeah. That.” 

“Let’s get to the bottom of it, then,” he said, pulling the note in question out of his pocket. He unfolded it carefully, smoothing out the creases against his knee.

“You...keep that in your pocket?” She asked as he pulled his phone out of his other pocket. His thumb hovered over the screen where he’d been about to start typing in the first phrase across the top of the note when he froze. _Oh_. That might be weird.

“Oh, uh...yeah,” he shrugged and looked at her. “Is that weird?”

“Super weird,” she said. She began to grin again, maintaining eye contact as she pulled his folded up sketch out of the pocket of her jeans. He returned the wide smile. “Google away,” she said as she tucked the paper away again.

He started typing. ‘ _Parting is such sweet sorrow, That I shall say good night till it be morrow.’_ The second half of the quote populated in the search bar and he smiled seeing that at the end, the auto-fill had added _Romeo and Juliet._

“No way,” he laughed. That was so... _cheesy_ . And wonderful. And...appropriate. He shook his head smiling stupidly. Then, he was snapped out of his bliss when, out of the corner of his eye, he saw blond hair flopping along towards them at a jogging pace. _Ugh_ , he thought, _not_ Soren.

Rayla continued on.

“Yeah, I know you _thought_ the whole ‘secret, forbidden romance situation’ was an original proposal, but—” He was dimly aware that he wanted to be able to appreciate her witty response, but was instead preoccupied with beginning to hastily fold the note away.

“Uh, Rayla?” He said, fumbling to avoid dropping her mittens that he’d take out of his pocket.

“—I had you beat!” She finished proudly before her tone turned to confusion. “What?”

“It’s about to be not so secret anymore,” he said, pointing towards Soren, approaching more quickly now as he waved and called out to Callum. A mildly panic-stricken cringe came across her face as she snatched the mittens out his hands and tugged her hat down again before slipping down between the monkey bars.

“Greetings, fellow human!” she called.

He blinked. _What_?

* * *

Even _she_ had to cringe at how the accent sounded out loud. Something about it didn’t feel _quite_ right when she was _actually_ trying to sound like a human instead of just _making fun_ of how humans sounded. She was vaguely aware of Callum’s clumsy down-climbing of the monkey bars behind her as the yellow-haired human who seemed to know him approached. She felt her shoulders stiffen as the nerves hit her full force. 

“H-hey, Soren!” He stammered behind her. She turned to see Callum about halfway down the way he’d come up, foot grappling for purchase against one of the bars below. He didn’t look _particularly_ amused with her impression, but she wouldn’t call him _offended_ either. He raised an eyebrow at her when they locked eyes. She turned back to his friend, plastering a disingenuous grin across her face. Just to be safe, she hid her mittened hands behind her back for good measure.

“‘Sup, Callum?” he said, wiping some sweat from his brow, as he briefly nodded his chin upward in their general direction. The human leaned over to the side to stretch as he spoke, raising an arm above his head. “Who’s your friend?” Callum’s boots hit the mulch, and she could tell by the sound of the wood chips scattering behind her that it hadn’t been elegant. 

“This is—” Before he could continue, stumbling up to her side, the nerves forced her to interject, stepping in front of his path. Her chest fluttered with tension still, uncertain the effectiveness of her illusion.

“Why, hello there, fellow human!” She maintained the toothy smile and brought out a covered hand from behind her back to wave. “I am Rayla! Callum’s friend who is a human girl!” That sounded a _little_ better, she thought. The human—Soren—didn’t seem to notice that anything was off.

“Girlfriend! She means girlfriend!” He blurted next to her, shouldering her out of the way gently. _Oh_ , she thought. _Girlfriend?_ No time to blush about it now...though, _Callum_ certainly was. She nudged him to the side to continue on with practicing her human impression. After all, maybe it was the solution to the _secret_ piece of their _romance_!...at least until it got too warm for mittens.

“Yes! I’m just a simple human girl who likes...the human things!” She looked to Callum and found him looking back at her _absolutely_ incredulously. He probably wasn’t offended if he’d just called her his _girlfriend_ , right? He rolled his eyes at her. She continued, grin growing more genuine. Maybe he’d do that _cute_ eye roll again _._ “Yup. Nothing better than a nice sandwich with every meal! With lots of bread!” What was the yelp (also cute) from Callum next to her about? She was _definitely_ improving!

“Really? Girlfriend? _Her_?” Soren questioned, eyes cutting between her and Callum. He brought his finger to his chin, as if he was thinking about something. The nerves and panic rushed back again. Was that because...? Could he _tell_ that she was an elf? She’d been doing so well! 

“Uh...yeah. We’re a...a _thing_ ,” Callum stammered next to her, a hand at the back of his head. He shrugged and was looking nervously at _her_ , not at Soren. She let her eyebrows raise questioningly for a moment as she looked at him sideways. _A thing_? She re-affixed the grin to her face and turned back to Soren.

“Good for you, man,” he said with an approving head nod. She sighed in relief. _Safe!_ Soren turned to go with a wave, jogging off in the direction he’d come from. “See ya!” he called back. 

She looked at Callum tensely for a moment until Soren was out of earshot, and he stared back. Relief had flashed across his eyes, letting her relax a little too as the corner of her mouth crept up into a smile. Callum’s sudden outburst matched her own as they both clutched at their stomachs in glee, doubled over and shoulders shaking fitfully, their laughter feeding off each other’s.

“What was _that?”_

“A ‘ _thing’_?”

She gasped for breath through the peals of laughter that echoed in the cold air as he continued.

“The _accent_!” He said wiping away a tear as he continued to chuckle a little more softly now.

“You...you don’t like Human Rayla?” She tried desperately to sound offended but the giggles that leaked out between each word gave her away. Once they’d subsided and she regained her breath a little, she shrugged, continued to smile cheesily at him. “Soren bought it.” That brought his snickering back full force.

“Rayla, Soren is...” he paused to roll his eyes to the side, as if carefully considering what to say, “an idiot.” 

That caused a whole new fit of giggles to erupt from her mouth. Her sides were starting to ache as she continued hysterically. Callum couldn’t stop either it seemed. “I beg you. Please. Never again,” he pleaded between more little gasps of laughter.

She sighed, gaining a little bit of control again. “Oh, so Rayla’s your _girlfriend,_ apparently—news to me!—but you won’t give _Human_ Rayla the time of day?” She teased, she felt her lips purse to the side as she tried desperately not to continue grinning so widely. 

“I like _Rayla_ Rayla.” He said, catching his breath. His grin faded into a shy little smile. Her heart skipped a beat, especially seeing the questioning sweetness in his eyes as they shined at her, green and wide. “ _Rayla_ Rayla _is_ my girlfriend...if she wants to be.” She felt a blush come over her as she stepped closer to nudge him with her shoulder. 

She couldn’t help but tease him a little more, her voice sing-songy in pitch. “I don’t know, Callum. I don’t know if I’m ready for us to be a ‘thing’...whatever _that_ means!” A giggle sputtered forward again.

“Okay, Miss ‘A Sandwich with Every Meal’,” he shot back, crossing his arms in phony offense. “Do elves not eat _bread?_ ” He leaned towards her and drew out the last word.

“Not like humans do,” she scoffed. “I swear _everything_ you eat is _some_ kind of bread.” She counted on her fingers. “Pizza, pasta, sandwiches…” Callum interrupted her list with more laughter. “What?”

“I don’t even _want_ to tell you what _sandwiches_ means in my family,” he said, shaking his head and covering his eyes, shoulders shaking merrily again. 

“Please. Spare me,” she grinned, repeating her reaction to his terrible pickup lines from earlier. She softened a little as he uncovered his eyes and smiled back at her gently. She stepped closer, reaching out with a mittened hand to take his. She wished she’d taken off the mitten first. “ _Rayla_ Rayla _does_ want to be your girlfriend, by the way.” The gentle smile grew, the apples of his cheeks rising and highlighting a little pink. She squeezed his hand, not quite done ribbing him. “ _Human_ Rayla’s still not so sure.” His smile grew lopsided and wide.

“Well, good, because _Human_ Rayla is a _weirdo_ ,” he returned, reaching to hold her other hand as well. He leaned toward her again for his next comment. “Though, it _is_ a plus that she likes sandwiches so much.” She wondered if she should just hit him now or wait until she knew for sure what in the world _sandwiches_ could mean to him.

She shook a little, shivering this time rather than laughing, when another gust of wind blew past. Wordlessly, his head tilted to the side and he returned her hands to her in order to unwind the crimson scarf from his neck and loop it over her. She breathed in a shaky breath when his fingers grazed her cheek as he wrapped it once, then twice around her neck. His thumb lingered against her a moment on the second pass, and she couldn’t be sure he’d touched her for a second, or a minute, or even five, his eyes, soft and a little dreamy-looking, never leaving hers. She broke eye contact first to reach for his other hand and step a little closer, wondering how warm his lips might be if she moved even closer and just gently pressed hers to his...The wind blew again. 

“Rayla, I…” She watched his lips, wanting desperately to drift closer, unable to breath from the anticipation. “I have to go,” he said gently, finally letting his fingers fall from her cheek. “I’m supposed to help Ez with his homework.”

“Oh,” she glanced to the side, disappointed as he pulled away. At least her hand was still in his. She still regretted the mittens, obscuring his touch. “Well, let me drive you.” She tried to brighten a little, reminding herself that she was, _apparently_ , his _girlfriend._

“I live in the neighborhood right here.” He thumbed over his shoulder in the direction that Soren had come from. “I can walk.” She shook her head, flinging off the last of her disappointment to fondly grab at the red fabric around her neck. She tucked her chin down to breathe into it for a moment, looking up at him through her eyelashes and enjoying the warm pocket of protection from the winter the scarf provided. Her mind wandered to wondering if he’d smell just the same if she’d gotten close enough.

“Don’t be silly. You’ll be cold without your scarf.” She tugged on his hand in the direction of the car, flushing pink again when his arm looped around her shoulder instead. His smile was...so _close_. She turned into the loose embrace as they walked, finding that, _yes_ , the scarf—which she was keeping now, come hell or high-water—did smell _just_ like him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come find me on tumblr! :) [My handle is the same.](https://blutopaz15.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!! It's been a while, but I have a couple of other fics that got updated in the meantime! I hope you've had a lovely holiday season!
> 
> This chapter is just a touch heavier...a few more back story clues, more teen texting cringe, and some pining! (yes, despite the fact that they already know they like each other)
> 
> I hope you enjoy! I'd love any comments you feel inclined to leave for me!

Sending selfies to her boyfriend was  _ not _ what Rayla would have normally been doing five minutes before an audition. 

But here she was, glancing at the mirrored wall in front of her to be sure no one was looking before she opened the camera on her phone. She tugged on her braid, laying her white hair carefully against the deep teal sleeve of her leotard, first seeing how it looked draped across her left shoulder, then across her right, before ultimately deciding on the left. She tried scrunching up her face into a goofy expression, but scoffed at the resulting picture she’d snapped. Mid-eye roll, another dancer in her group crossed behind her, and Rayla hurriedly tossed the phone between her ankles and leaned over to appear as if she’d been stretching.

She felt the color drain from her face when she picked up the phone again, realizing that she’d managed, in her panic, to  _ send _ the stupid-looking picture. Callum was already typing a (probably teasing) response but she scrambled to tuck her phone away before the message could pop up, deciding to put it out of her mind, knowing his response would certainly make her  _ even more _ distracted than she already was. She heard it buzz twice from its spot underneath his scarf at the top of her pile of clothes. 

She stood to stretch some more, trying to stay warm before her group was called to run through the final combination. She closed her eyes once she’d bent over, her horns nearly scraping at the floor beneath her, and found her cheeks warming too as her head kept floating back to the almost-kiss that’d been haunting her for the past two days. 

_ Focus, Rayla _ , she resolved with the best of intentions, squeezing her eyes even more tightly shut, but...she very much  _ couldn’t _ focus. At least not on anything but Callum—specifically, not on anything but  _ kissing _ Callum.

Over the past two days, she’d developed a habit of imagining them suspended in that moment when she’d taken his hand while his thumb still lingered on her face, just before she’d felt herself drift closer. If she paused there, she could run through her favorite first-kiss fantasy—the one where his thumb had drifted down from her cheek to just under her chin and—ever so gently—pulled her lips to his. Even in her head, it was a short kiss, but one that left them both smiling. She thought about his eyes blinking open when they were through and how he’d probably say something funny—intentionally or not—before holding both of her hands—mittenless, in this reality—in his. Her favorite part of the fantasy, though, was how he would then pull her close, his arms looping around her and her nose buried in the fabric of his jacket. Just  _ thinking _ about it made her heart pound against her ribcage.

Like it was doing right now. 

The flush that had come to her face—the result of a combination of blood rushing to her head in her inverted pose and thinking about Callum’s lips on hers—deepened as the fantasy faded and the truth crept back in. He  _ hadn’t _ kissed her—hadn’t even  _ hugged _ her, really.

And for the past 48 hours, she’d been  _ desperately _ resisting the urge to ask him _ why _ .

A voice through the intercom at the door called for her group. She straightened up slowly, ears twitching downward at the red in her cheeks when she looked up to see her reflection.

Rayla couldn’t shake that question:  _ why _ hadn’t he kissed her? 

She was almost  _ certain _ that he’d wanted to. The way he’d stared at her, their lips only inches apart...there was no  _ way _ she’d misread  _ that _ . 

Plus, she’d told herself, Callum had been first to almost  _ everything _ so far. First with phone numbers and handholding and  _ feelings _ .  _ He’d _ been the one to call it romance, the first to label their  _ thing _ . She hadn’t even had to  _ ask _ for his scarf...so was  _ kissing _ really where he drew the line? 

And, for that matter, she hardly counted his arm around her shoulder as a hug. Though, it had been nice and warm tucked in against his side like that. She stopped herself from crossing back to her stuff just to grab his scarf again.

She’d already been through every reason she could think of over the past couple of days, but she flipped back through them anyway as she found a spot at the side of the group and the first run-through of the short audition piece started.

He didn’t care that she was an elf and he was a human. She assumed that meant he didn’t mind the horns or the hands or the ears. Even if he did, they’d been hidden away anyway. So, disgust was out. 

He’d asked her to be his girlfriend  _ after _ her little performance as Human Rayla. So, he hadn’t been offended by it...at least not enough to not  _ like _ her anymore. Was it possible that even if he still liked her, he  _ was _ actually mad about that? No, she decided, he’d been way too smiley when he’d teased her about it for  _ that _ to be the problem.

Humans  _ did _ kiss each other, didn’t they? She almost scoffed out loud as soon as the thought popped into her head. There were enough stupid human romcoms on all of the time for her to  _ know _ that they did. Maybe kissing was a bigger deal for humans than she was remembering, though?

She frowned. Kissing him  _ would _ be a big deal—for her personally. It’d be her first one. But that didn’t stop her from wishing that Callum had kissed her. In fact, it made her want to kiss him  _ more _ . What could be better than a first kiss with Callum? 

Her fingers twitched as she remembered the way the first few touches of his fingers against hers had seemed to sparkle with electricity and then the way that his hands, large and gentle, had radiated with comforting warmth when he’d reached to actually hold hers. She wondered which way his lips on hers would feel—sparkly and electric or warm and gentle? Either way, she knew that any first kiss awkwardness—if it was with him—would be balanced out by a sense of magic and humor, both of which would show in his eyes just before he leaned closer and then just after too. It wouldn’t  _ feel _ like such a big deal because she knew that his smile—kind and probably just a little bit shy—would be waiting for her on the other side. 

The haze of longing she’d fallen into broke. 

Maybe it was a big deal for him, too. Maybe  _ such _ a big deal that it had stopped him. Maybe it would also be  _ his _ first kiss. Wouldn’t Callum want that, though? For her to be his first kiss? He would...right?

She stumbled a little as they ended that first repetition and she shook her head, startling herself out of her reverie fand back to reality or a moment. She focused during her second way through the steps. It was just the school musical, but she  _ did _ have a reputation to uphold.

Her thoughts drifted again, though, as they started the third and final repetition, this time her vision blurring with anger.

All of this, she thought, would be  _ so  _ much better if they didn’t have to sneak around. She wouldn’t have to fume for  _ days _ , composing pathetic text messages in her head begging Callum to kiss her. She could just drive to his  _ stupid _ human house, make her  _ stupid _ human boyfriend come outside, wrap his scarf around his  _ stupid _ human neck, and just kiss his  _ stupid _ human lips herself.

Her mouth set in an even deeper frown thinking about how he  _ wasn’t _ stupid. At all.

Well, except maybe for those pick-up lines.

She cursed under her breath. She  _ missed _ him.

If Ethari and Runaan would just  _ meet _ Callum, they’d see. It’d taken Rayla all of five minutes to see how  _ kind _ and  _ open _ he was. Nothing like the stories of selfish and narrow-minded humans she’d heard all of her life.

If Callum’s family would just meet her...well, she didn’t know  _ what _ they’d think. But, if  _ Callum _ liked her...she couldn’t be all bad, right?

Hot tears pricked at Rayla’s eyes as the music ended. She held her breath so she wouldn’t let out the sob that was stalled there in the back of her throat and walked away from the stage, back to the rehearsal space. 

Her phone clattered to the floor as she started tearing through her belongings looking for her sweatpants. Vision blurring from the tears that had spilled over, she paused to read the messages Callum had sent earlier, finding them sweeter than she dared to hope. Somehow, though, that made her feel even worse.

> C: hahahaha cute!
> 
> C: Good luck :)

* * *

Callum was vaguely aware that he was grinning, but he _just couldn’t help_ _it_ looking at that picture Rayla had sent. He couldn’t bring himself to _stop_ looking at it either. Every time he put the phone down to watch Ez and Bait run around, only seconds passed before he picked it back up and let out another quiet little sigh looking at the picture that was just so...Rayla.

Even all silly, with her nose wrinkled up, she was just so  _ beautiful _ , her neat, bright-white braid trailing down her shoulder, which was lifted in a delicate little shrug. She’d winked at the camera—at  _ him— _ playfully, a single lilac eye open and glimmering happily. If not for her hair, he couldn’t imagine a paler color than that of her skin, almost translucent in the way it showed every little flush in her face. Her cheeks, he’d realized from the pictures she’d started sending his way over the past couple of days, really were  _ perpetually _ pink. Her ears—one perked up a little higher than the other in the picture—were tipped with pink too and he wondered if  _ that _ was where he should be looking to figure out if she was blushing or not. He’d have to test the theory on Monday. His eyes settled, then, on the part of the picture that had really made him start staring: her lips pursed _ just slightly _ to one side, the cherry on top of her goofy, lopsided expression.

He knew it was silly.  _ That _ wasn’t what her lips would look like against his—right? 

But he couldn't stop thinking about what she  _ would _ look like if he kissed her. He envisioned her wearing a tiny smile and her eyes blinking open slowly, twinkling with delight, as his lips left hers.

He had an idea already about what Rayla might look like  _ before _ a kiss. The image of her eyes, scanning slowly down, breaking their gaze to glance down to his lips instead, was already seared into his mind from that almost-kiss the other day. 

His blissful smile fell into a grimace as he scolded himself.  _ Stupid, stupid, stupid _ , he thought, remembering the sudden nerves that had struck him when she’d leaned a little closer to him, their hands clasped, his thumb on her cheek, and his scarf around her neck. It would have been  _ so easy _ to pull her  _ just  _ a little closer and press his lips to hers. 

_ Why _ couldn’t he have just done that? How hard could kissing  _ be _ , anyway? 

His phone buzzed, the new message pushing both the image to the top of the screen and the bad feelings down.

> R: Hey.
> 
> C: Hey! How was it?
> 
> R: Fine.
> 
> R: Listen. I need to talk to you.

The bad feelings flooded back in full force. As new as he was to this whole romance...situation...thing, he knew  _ that _ wasn’t good. 

Maybe...maybe his panic the other day  _ had _ actually hurt her feelings. A lump rose in his throat thinking about the brief flicker of disappointment he’d seen flash across Rayla’s face when he’d pulled away without kissing her.

> C: Uh...ok

> C: Is everything okay?

The next messages came in rapid succession.

> R: Yeah.
> 
> R: No.
> 
> R: I don’t know.
> 
> R: I’m just upset.

_ Oh _ . Callum’s brow furrowed and he wanted to kick himself for jumping to the conclusion that the only reason she could ‘need to talk’ would be about some relationship problem. The embarrassment he felt about his selfish reaction clashed with how flattered he was that she was coming to him with whatever it was that was on her mind. 

He couldn’t deny that  _ almost _ everything between them so far had been lighthearted infatuation, but he hadn’t forgotten how she’d passed on one of his five questions the first night he’d texted her or how guarded and reserved she’d seemed on their way to the park. She’d been so  _ careful _ , too, with his feelings at that moment...so worried about offending him, as if  _ she _ were personally responsible for all of the reasons they had to stay a secret. It was the least he could do, he thought, to show her he was worthy of this trust she was showing him now. After all, he wasn’t  _ just _ enchanted by her looks or her touch or the thought of her kiss—the longer he knew her, the more he wanted to know  _ everything _ about her...if she’d let him.

> C: Rayla...what’s wrong?
> 
> C: You can tell me
> 
> R: It’s stupid.
> 
> C: I doubt that
> 
> C: What’s up?

She was doing that thing again that made him stop breathing. He watched as the little grey ellipses popped up over and over. He knew her well enough already to know that she was typing and retyping the same thought over and over. He’d only get a sentence or so, even if it took her all day to find the  _ right _ sentence.

> R: I just miss you.
> 
> R: I really want to see you.

He was impressed.  _ Two _ sentences—and back-to-back, for that matter. Two  _ sweet _ sentences, he thought. He hated that she was hurting but he couldn’t help the way his lips twitched into a little smile. Rayla  _ missed _ him. He felt guilty again, now for feeling all floaty and giddy about the fact that she had really gone through all that unfamiliar vulnerability  _ just _ to tell him she wanted to see him.

> C: That’s not stupid
> 
> C: I miss you too
> 
> R: It’s been less than two days. lol

She couldn't be _that_ upset if she was joking about it. He smiled at her last message and watched the grey dots do their little dance again.

> R: There’s...a reason I want to see you.

_ Oh _ . Knowing that he—or at least their  _ thing _ —was what had made her upset in the first place made him feel a little less conflicted now about being a touch self-centered, as his mind raced through every possible reason she’d want to see him. (His panic was brief: she wouldn’t be  _ missing _ him if she wanted to break up with him, right?)

Besides the simple pleasure of just being in her presence, there was  _ definitely _ a  _ very specific  _ reason that he wanted to see her too. 

She was so slow with her carefully phrased responses as she continued that he grew a little lightheaded from all of the breath-holding.

> C: What’s that?
> 
> R: You know when you gave me your scarf?
> 
> C: Yeah...
> 
> R: I thought…
> 
> R: I thought you might kiss me.
> 
> R: But then you didn’t.

He exhaled, and his fingers flew to type his response.

> C: I wanted to

Her reply was almost immediate, appearing at the same moment that he admitted the stupidity that had held him back.

> R: You did?
> 
> C: I was just nervous

It took no time at all for Callum to compose the message, but he paused to brace himself before tacking on the icon at the end, and then again before hitting ‘send’.

> C: Of course I did <3

Putting his phone face down on the picnic table, he looked across to Ez and Bait—rolling around in the grass for some reason now?—and pretended to distract himself, hyper-aware of the stillness of his phone. When he finally felt it buzz once and then, a moment later, twice, he made himself take a deep breath before picking up the phone again.

> R: Well at least we have something to look forward to on monday then. <3
> 
> R: ;)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ Come be friends on tumblr!! ](https://blutopaz15.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> This was the chapter that didn't want to be written PLUS it turned out to be super long (by this fic's standards anyway). Life is about to get a little busier (my work-from-home job might go in-person again soon plus I have my part-time gig still too) so I don't know if I'll be writing quite as much as I have been the past few months but I'm certainly not disappearing or anything either. :)
> 
> I hope you enjoy some more teen romance nonsense! As always, I appreciate any kudos/comments you feel inclined to leave for me! :) Thanks so much!

> R: Well at least we have something to look forward to on monday then. <3

> R: ;)

The first thing he’d noticed when he finally flipped his phone over and read those two messages was that she’d added a little pink heart to the end of her first text to match the red one he’d sent in his last message. The relief that alone had filled him with had been enough to make him grin at his phone like an idiot again, but actually _reading_ what she’d said and seeing the winky-face that followed...he’d mumbled vaguely about the cold and windburn when Ezran noticed the heat in his cheeks.

That excuse had held up for all of about two minutes.

“It’s that girl, isn’t it? Rayla?” Ez asked smugly, scooping Bait up in his arms and crossing to the picnic table where Callum sat. 

Callum felt the relief drain from his body and the color drain from his cheeks all at once. He slammed his phone face down again in a panic.

“Wh-what? No. Nope,” he stammered, his hand nervously pushing his hair back as he avoided looking at Ezran’s knowing smirk. “Nuh-uh. Who, uh, who’s Rayla?” Callum’s attempt at a lopsided, innocent smile was met with dull disbelief and an eye roll as his brother swung a leg over to sit on the opposite bench.

“You’re a terrible liar,” Ez deadpanned. “Seriously. You can give up the act. Every five seconds for the past week you’ve gotten a text from ‘R heart-eyes kissy-face heart-eyes,” he groaned, gesturing towards his phone. 

Callum sighed. They weren’t doing so well with the _secret_ part of their secret forbidden romance situation. First with Soren, now with Ez...

“What’s the big deal anyway? Why are you being all secretive?” Ezran shrugged as he asked, the disgust in his tone having fallen away.

Callum frowned at the discomfort of having to _explain_ the secret to his sweet, wide-eyed little brother. “Ez...she’s…”

“An elf?” he asked. “So? Who _cares_ about any of that?”

“Ez, you _know_ how tense things have been, especially since Dad…” Callum trailed off, his expression growing more bitter at even having occasion to mention it. He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence. 

Until a few months ago, vague human stories about vicious and arrogant elves had just been background noise in their lives—really just old rumors about old problems—but that had _changed_ with their Dad’s passing, pushing the mutual suspicion and disdain between elves and humans into focus all over town.

“Humans and elves...they don’t _trust_ each other,” Callum said as simply as he could. Of course, Ez _knew_ that already. _Everyone_ knew that, but that didn’t make it make sense.

“Yeah.” Ezran went silent, looking down and tracing the wood grain in the table with a finger. He brightened after a moment, though, managing a smile despite the weight clearly still evident in his eyes. “But that’s not _Rayla’s_ fault! Maybe if Aunt Amaya met her, she’d see why you like her so much!”

Optimistic Ez never failed to bring a smile to Callum’s face. He was _right_ of course. He didn’t see how anyone could _possibly_ dislike Rayla. So funny, and smart, and sweet, and beautiful, and _amazing_ …

He let himself drift on that increasingly familiar float-y feeling for a moment before a sharp pang of fury hit. Rayla didn’t deserve any of the bad things that’d been whispered about elves in his childhood, nor any of the _horrible_ things said outright more recently. He frowned remembering back to Aunt Amaya using the word _monster_...

As much as he hated keeping this secret, he couldn’t imagine anything worse than Rayla hearing _that_.

“You know the way Aunt Amaya talks about elves, Ez. I don’t see how I can tell her...and Rayla can’t tell her family either,” Callum explained.

Ez pursed his lips and glanced off to the side, as if searching for a solution. Finding none, he looked back to Callum. “That sucks,” he resolved sympathetically.

Callum gave a single solitary chuckle at the foulest language Ez could muster and stood, indicating it was time to head home. “Yeah. It does,” he agreed, ruffling Ez’s hair as they turned to go. “So....now that you’re in on the secret….mind staying home Monday?

—

While he hadn’t _planned_ on telling Ez about Rayla, it _was_ nice that, as he shuffled along through the snow on the sidewalk towards the store, he didn’t have to worry about figuring out how to ditch Ez. The nerves that had been steadily brewing in his belly for the past 48 hours were more than enough to worry about. 

He dared another peak at her most recent text, which had turned his face scarlet again on the bus ride over.

> R: See you soon *kissy face*

Simply getting to _see_ her—live and in person not just in a cute selfie—was already enough to make him feel all breathless and giddy, thinking of her fingers closing around his (no mittens this time) and the sparkly glimmering her eyes did that pictures just couldn’t capture. There was a layer of pleasant queasiness stirring in his gut, too, knowing that she was just steps away, eagerly awaiting a _kiss._ From _him_.

Was...was that how he should _greet_ her? Or maybe he should wait until they said goodbye?

Maybe—he dared to hope—both?

He walked a little faster approaching the door as the knot in his stomach pulled even tighter.

> C: Walking in now
> 
> R: You’re late. -_-
> 
> R: Back of the store.

His fingers tugged nervously at the strap of his backpack as he breezed through the automatic doors, craning his neck back and forth to peek around displays and customers, hoping to catch a glimpse of bright white hair to guide him in the right direction. He’d turned to pull out his phone again, having reached the back of the store without seeing her, when she called out to him.

“Psst.” Rayla popped out from a slightly recessed doorway, her hair—and the end of his scarf—falling over her shoulder. The tiny braid she always wore slipped out from behind her ear too, only to be quickly tucked away again. Callum watched her fingers fall from hair, to ear, to scarf, to elbow, her arms ending up crossed as she leaned back against the door frame. The ball of one foot rested against the entryway, propped up behind her. “Hey, slowpoke.”

His heartbeat pounded in his ears, watching the quick flutter of her eyelashes as her lips curved into a wry little smirk. He blinked away to the ground, finding that, left unrestrained, his eyes wanted _so_ badly to stare, uninterrupted, at the lips—live and in person—that he wanted _so_ badly to kiss. Flashes of taking _just_ a few steps nearer, closing the distance between them, and kissing her currently-lopsided lips crossed his mind, but he found his legs frozen beneath him. 

Her hand reaching to fling the loose end of his scarf (Had she _really_ worn it every day? Maybe she’d just kept it with her as a prop for pictures?) back over her shoulder caught his eye, bringing just a touch of relief to the overwhelming desire to keep looking at her lips. 

She held out a hand to him, fingers spread wide, and the teasing smirk disappeared in favor of a gentler smile. The glimmer of light in her eyes—the sparkle he’d been longing for in the pictures she sent—melded with sweet warmth, highlighting the pink tones that matched her blush.

Rayla’s eyebrows twitched upward as she looked between his eyes and her outstretched hand, waiting for him to reach back. He jolted out of his daze, her invitation enough to unfreeze his feet so he could drift closer. He wrapped his fingers around hers, finding her hand smaller and softer in his than he’d recalled.

“Hey Rayla.”

* * *

She _swore_ she hadn’t been nervous before seeing him, but, somehow, all that doltish gaping at her that Callum had just done, time standing still while she waited for him to do something— _anything_ —had quickened the pace of her heartbeat to the point that when he _finally_ put his hand in hers, she thought she might pass out. She went for another grin instead and tugged on his hand, bringing him nearer. Rayla watched his eyes, wide and green and more than a little unfocused, flicker to her lips—like they had amidst all the staring—and she sucked in a quick breath, and then—

 _Why_ did she start _talking_ instead of _kissing_ him?

“So, I know I laughed at your lofty ambitions of a four-minute long date,” she started, referring back to their first text messages. Her eyes wandered down to their hands and she noted how his touch could somehow manage to be both firm and gentle all at once. “But, turns out, I can do you one better.” 

As she spoke, she changed the way he’d joined their hands, pushing her fingers between his instead. When she looked up, she caught his smile widening as he squeezed back at her hand. She was pretty sure he wasn’t listening, even though his eyes were clearly glued to her lips. That was fine. She barely knew what words were coming out of her mouth, either, as she was preoccupied herself with watching how his smile changed the shape of the lips she _desperately_ wanted to kiss.

“I think I can pencil you in for about—” She hummed and pulled her phone out of her pocket with her other hand, glancing at the timer running on the screen in large block numbers. “—five minutes.”

He blinked at her and finally met her eyes instead of watching her lips, the lovesick fog seemingly having stolen any semblance of wits he’d once had. “What?” he asked, confirming her suspicions that he’d been distracted.

She chuckled and wordlessly tugged him into the break room, his footsteps heavy and syncopated behind her. His clumsiness pulled at the corners of her mouth...he sure did like to stumble. 

_Cute_.

Callum straightened up when she turned back to him. “Lock that, would you?” she asked, nodding to the heavy door falling shut behind him. 

The dreamy look across his face disappeared, replaced with wide eyes and a deep blush. “Lock it?” he asked, mouth settling into an excited grin that told her that he knew _exactly_ why she didn’t want anyone intruding.

Could he _be_ any more adorable?

Rayla felt her own cheeks color some more as, despite her bold words, the nerves surged back. “Yes, dummy.” 

Her heart pounded, thinking that, when he turned back, they’d be all alone and he’d be just a foot away from her and she could just step forward and put her lips on his and…

They’d barely even spoken yet today. Too much too soon, right? Right, she resolved, sliding away towards the table while his back was turned.

He fiddled with the lock and she heard a tiny _click_ as she sat, pulling the part of her snack she’d saved to share with him out of her lunchbox. She held the plastic baggie open to him.

“Moonberries. Want some?” she offered, catching the tiniest glimmer of disappointment as he followed her across the room. Maybe...maybe she _should’ve_ stayed over there by the door with him. She knew he _wanted_ to kiss her too...maybe he was just as impatient as she was?

 _Why_ was this so awkward? _Why_ couldn’t he have just kissed her at the park a few days ago when it’d seemed so _natural_?

He was quickly smiling again, though. “Sure,” he shrugged, leaning forward to take a berry before having a seat next to her. He nodded in approval after the first bite and she handed him a second as she popped one into her mouth too.

“Told you they were good,” she said around the berry in her mouth. She swallowed and smiled, watching him enthusiastically reach for another. Her cheeks and ears heated thinking about the fact that now he’d taste like her favorite food when—if?—he kissed her. _That_ was a benefit she hadn’t considered when she’d packed her lunchbox. Maybe she could _keep_ him eating moonberries and then he’d _always_ taste like them. ”Oh, maybe _that’s_ what we’ll do next week! I’ll call out of work on Monday, and then I can take you where they make the best Moonberry Surprise!”

His smile was just the slightest bit sideways, as he reflected her excitement right back at her. It would be nice to know what Callum’s lips were like on their own, though, too. 

“Ooh, Moonberry Surprise? What’s in it?” He asked, grinning toothily now. 

“I can’t just _tell_ you what’s in a Moonberry Surprise, Callum!” She shrugged, pleased that all of the awkward tension had given way to this playful back-and-forth. It made her feel even lighter in-person than it did over text.

“Oh, right.” Callum nodded, holding up another berry. He paused and looked at it curiously. “How exactly—” 

He stopped himself and a _very_ suspicious smirk took the place of his grin. “Nevermind,” he said with finality, eyes glinting at her teasingly as he bit into the moonberry.

“What?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

“Nope. Nothing. Nothing at all,” he said with a shrug. He pointed between the two of them and then down to the moonberries as he continued, still smug for _some_ reason. She’d allow it. “Me, you. Moonberry Surprise. Next week. It’s a date.” Her eyes rolled almost involuntarily as he elbowed her.

“So...how’d you ditch Ezran?” she asked. She ate another moonberry, and her mind strayed back to her subconscious ulterior berry-related motives. 

She had filed away a few kissing-Callum strategies in case his little brother had tagged along, but she was a little relieved—especially given how her palms were sweating over _this_ , the _simplest_ of her plans to make out with her boyfriend—that they didn't have to navigate keeping their _thing_ from Ezran this afternoon. 

_Why_ was Callum cringing like that?

“Yeah, uh, about that...” he started, trailing off and looking sheepish. He covered his eyes as he continued. “He knows.”

She blinked. _Of course_ that was why he was cringing like that.

“He _knows_?” she asked. Her attempt at shock and horror was short lived. She couldn’t help the smirk that came after her scoff. Callum blinked an eye open at her, gauging her reaction, the tension leaving his shoulders seeing that she was amused rather than annoyed. “You don’t keep secrets so good, do you?” 

“He figured it out!” he exclaimed with a dramatic shrug. 

She laughed, crossing her arms and leaning toward him, an eyebrow raised in challenge. “How do you explain Soren then?” 

He had no one to blame but himself for _that_ one if what he’d said about Soren’s obliviousness was true. Callum hadn’t _needed_ to tell him she was his girlfriend. Despite Callum’s _opinion_ , she had appeared to be a perfectly convincing human girl who _could’ve_ just been a friend as far as Soren knew. She leaned an elbow on the table, raising her eyebrows at him as she waited for his response. He seemed to waffle between a few variations of an answer before finally opening his mouth.

“I...panicked?” he squeaked. Rayla chuckled and shook her head when his voice cracked. 

“Uh huh. Well, _you’re_ the one who’s going to have to explain it to your aunt if she figures it out, not me.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them. Callum’s playful grimace fell into a worried frown, and he stared down at the checkered tablecloth.

“I...you know that I wish I _could_ do that, right?“ He looked up at her with the last word, her own regret reflected in his eyes. She looked down, finding it difficult to look back knowing she’d been the one to make that pained look come to his face.

“Yeah. I know,” she said, voice tiny.

Her fingers drifted up to pull gently at the edge of his scarf that hung down to her waist, just barely still wrinkled from the hours the red fabric spent as a secret in the evenings, balled up in her backpack when she was at home so she wouldn’t have to explain anything either. 

She didn’t realize Callum was reaching for her until his hand found her shoulder. He wasn’t quite smiling, but whatever this look was—all warm and gentle— _was_ comforting. Almost as comforting as…

Rayla lifted his scarf to her nose. Remembering that the smell had already faded, she pursed her lips in a melodramatic scowl, but brightened again about the fact that the source of that reassuring scent was right in front of her. She unwound the scarf from her neck and looped it back over his.

“I want this back,” she instructed firmly, pressing the scarf against him with her palm. ”But take it for the week. It doesn’t smell like you anymore.”

His little laugh was breathy and quiet. “I can take care of that,” he said, almost a whisper. 

He brought his hand to where hers had lingered on his chest, and he held it there. His heartbeat thrummed against her fingers and her eyes traveled slowly from their hands clasped above the red fabric, up past his lips to meet his fond-looking, grass-green eyes shining at her. She sucked in another quick breath, realizing that forgetting to breathe was at least _partially_ responsible for this light-headed floaty feeling that Callum was _mostly_ responsible for.

Her timer rang.

“I have to—” 

_Relief_ was the first feeling that hit her when she realized that the sudden flurry of his face rushing towards hers and his hands grasping at her shoulders was because he was _kissing_ her. _Finally_ kissing her. Her eyes slid shut and she let a wave of wonder crash over her as everything but his lips faded away. His lips were—

Not on hers anymore. They were making words again. 

“Was—was that okay? Rayla, I should’ve told you before, but I’ve never kissed anyone and—”

“Shut up.” She rolled her eyes, equal parts entertained by his nerves—did he think she was some expert kisser or something?—and bothered by the fact that he wasn’t kissing her anymore.

“What?” Callum said, looking _way_ more panicked than he had any reason to be. Her smile hadn’t been clear enough apparently. 

She wrapped her fingers in the scarf she’d just replaced around his neck and tugged his lips back to hers, eliciting a muffled sound of surprise from him.

Where was she?

Right. His lips. They were a lot less unsure against hers _this_ time and not quite as still either as he pushed back into their kiss. Warm and soft...well, not soft like smooth. Soft like _sweet_ . In fact, his lips were a touch chapped, maybe from the winter-y weather outside but...so warm and sweet and so very _soothing_ against hers…

That was Callum to a T. Warm and sweet and soothing.

It was okay when he broke away this time, mostly because she needed to breathe too. 

He looked so...content. Their foreheads bumped and a similar feeling of delight made her heart flutter as he beamed at her.

His hands found her waist before he whispered into the inch of space between their lips: “Wow.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Valentine's Day and Rayla is at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hellooooo there! It's been a month or so, huh?
> 
> I've been struggling a bit with this story, but decided to use this AU to fulfill a prompt for [Rayllum Valentine's Week](https://raayllum.tumblr.com/post/639588092987195392/hey-everyone-i-thought-with-valentines-day) on Tumblr. The prompt is **chocolates!**
> 
> We have a little detour here before their moonberry surprise date next chapter! ;) I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Thanks so much for reading and, as always, I appreciate any kudos/comments you are inclined to leave for me!

Rayla frowned at the display of garland, seeing a tangled pile of string and felt on the ground beneath the pegs...no doubt dumped there by some customer. Her phone buzzed in her pocket again.

> _C: I think you’re BERRY cute!_
> 
> _C: (get it? bc you love moonberries?????) ;D_

She was sure that Callum _meant_ for the steady stream of sweet messages she’d been receiving all day to be comforting, but, honestly, they’d just been making her increasingly more and more bitter about being apart. Rayla shook her head at his silly, sweet flirting before tucking her phone back away and grumpily swiping the mess of Valentine’s decorations from the ground. 

She couldn’t help but think that—if not for her having to work—they could’ve _maybe_ risked sneaking off at some point today. But, no. Instead, she was _here_ , cleaning up some _stupid_ display that they probably wouldn’t sell any more of _anyway_.

When there’d been a sign-up sheet posted in the break-room a month ago, she’d been _more_ than fine with working on Valentine’s Day. She didn’t usually work on Sundays, but she’d had no reason _not_ to sign up. The others giggled about their own hopes for Valentine’s Day and how they _definitely_ weren’t working, and she’d rolled her eyes, scoffing as she scribbled her name on the paper.

How could she have known that, a week later, Callum would show up there in front of her, taking her by the hand and capturing her heart? Callum...all bumbling footsteps and sweet smiles and warm touches and soft kisses… 

She sighed. All things she’d have to wait until _tomorrow_ for. 

She tugged on the pile of thick string in her hands, hoping to unravel the little pink and white felt hearts from the knotted twine they were attached to, and grumbled when undoing one knot just tightened another loop further down. With a frustrated groan, she continued to work at the twisted up threads, muttering curses under her breath all the while, her yanking and tugging and pulling growing more and more frenzied, all of her focus and frustration directed at the cheap material. She’d been about to reach for the box-cutter in her back pocket when—

A hand landed on her shoulder.

“What—” She turned with a sharp glare at what ever _imbecile_ had the _nerve_ to reach out and touch her and—

 _Oh_.

Oh!

“Callum!” Rayla exclaimed, carelessly tossing the garland back to the ground as she lunged for the sweetest surprise she could’ve hoped for, her face immediately buried in the scarf that very much smelled like him again. He laughed as he momentarily teetered off balance.

“Hey, Rayla,” he chuckled as an arm curled around her back, but Rayla wondered briefly at the unsteady lilt of nerves in his laughter, before realizing how very _publicly_ she’d attached herself to him. She felt her cheeks warm as she quickly eased herself away. Callum just laughed some more, a little red-faced himself, when she looked nervously side to side, having put a little space between them. “Surprised?” 

“What are you _doing_ here?” she asked, checking again that no one was paying attention to them before threading her fingers through his and tugging him into the nearest aisle. She held his hand with both of hers, realizing as he continued to speak how he kept his left hand hidden behind his back and how his eyes absolutely _sparkled_ with delight. Her heart slowly settled into smaller flutters of affection as she grinned at him.

“Well...I had to give you this,” he said, smiling widely back at her and holding out a box that he hadn’t bothered to obscure with wrapping. Her cheeks burned even brighter as soon as she laid eyes on the package of chocolate-covered moonberries and the neat little bow that held a _new_ folded-up note securely in place. _Another drawing_ , she hoped. “I hope you like them. I figured you probably would since you like _regular_ moonberries... _berry_ much,” he said, growing somehow even _more_ delighted with himself.

“I _love_ them, Callum,” she assured him, not even pausing to roll her eyes at the pun that he was—apparently—quite fond of. “Thank you.” Rayla pulled on the hand in hers as she stepped closer to kiss him, his eyes shyly wandering to the ground as she did. Her lips landed on his cheek—also bright and warm, she noted—before her own delight dimmed. She hesitated before reaching for the box. “I...I don’t have anything for you, though.”

He squeezed at her hand. “It was a _surprise_ , Rayla. I’m not expecting anything in return,” he explained with a shrug, pushing the gift in her direction. 

“Well...how long can you stay?” she asked, reluctantly releasing his hand to accept the box, hoping she could maybe offer her company in return at least. 

“Not long.” He looked at her apologetically, tugging anxiously at his backpack strap. “Ez _and_ Aunt Amaya are next door, and I told them I’d be right back,” Callum’s face dimmed like hers had a moment ago and he looked at the ground, the unpleasant tension about their secret rising up and furrowing his brow. His eyes blinked open a little wider, though, as he recalled his excuse for coming to see her at all. “Oh, uh...guess I need to buy something.”

“You sure are going through charcoal fast,” she teased, checking again to be sure no one was nearby before hastily pressing her lips to his, unwilling to let their Valentine’s Day pass without a real kiss if she could help it. He blinked at her, smiling with those wide, green eyes, when she pulled away. “Get what you need,” she said, giggling a little at the dorky look on his face and wishing she could have lingered for longer on his lips. “Let me put these away, and then I’ll check you out.” 

His eyes narrowed at that, smile shifting to smirk. “Oh, you’ll _check me out,_ huh?” he asked, winking dramatically. She tapped him in the shoulder and laughed.

“Shut _up_ ,” she said, laying one more kiss to his cheek before going to stow the chocolates away.

* * *

Somehow, Rayla had beaten him to the front, Callum had realized after lapping the entire store, charcoal in hand, looking for her. 

He’d made it nearly to the doors—past the aisle where they’d first met over that pile of brightly colored stickers—before he caught sight of her, his heart fluttering in his chest like it always did when he had the pleasure of watching her from afar. He hummed fondly, watching her lean against the counter by her register, having apparently replaced the cashier who’d been standing there when he came in earlier. She rested her head in her hands, staring dreamily at the end of the queue line—waiting for _him_ with that smile, he thought, his pulse quickening just a touch at the notion.

Her eyes, all soft and sparkly and lilac—maybe he’d have to color his next sketch of her—met his, but something was... _off_ about the smile that replaced the far-off look she’d had. She straightened up, slipping her braid behind her ear, and he squinted in confusion, trying to decipher what that shift her expression was all about as he made a beeline for her register.

“Sir, the line starts down there,” she said, not even the faintest hint of familiar snark in her voice. His eyes followed the direction she’d nodded in, but his confusion deepened. No one was there. When Callum looked back, an eyebrow raised, she winked, her smile remaining artificial but the glimmer in her eye more real than ever. He coughed and felt his own grin spread and tilt off-center.

“Well...think you could make an exception?” He asked, winking back. 

“I suppose so.” The false smile twitched, flashing more genuine for just an instant before she cleared her throat and continued. He put the package of charcoal on the counter. “How are you doing today?” she asked, in what he was deeming her _customer service voice_. 

Every pleasant note in her tone was overplayed, but not in either of the sarcastic _or_ sweet ways he’d already grown so accustomed to. It almost reminded him of—he cringed—the _human Rayla_ voice...which reminded him...

Callum suppressed the grin that threatened to break across his face over the _other_ surprise Rayla would have waiting for her on their Moonberry Surprise date tomorrow. 

He made sure his hand had _actually_ made contact with a solid surface before he leaned forward towards her, _pretty_ sure that he was supposed to keep flirting with her.

“Better now that _you’re_ here,” he smirked. Rayla hid the chuckle behind her hand, before visibly swallowing her laughter. It seemed she’d given up on maintaining the distance in her smile, though. 

“Find everything you were looking for?” She grinned, passing the charcoal under the scanner. He let his head roll dramatically to the side, then back in her direction, as he answered.

“Mmm...charcoal? Check. Pretty girl? Also check.” Callum noted with satisfaction that _that_ one had gotten her to blush...even if she did roll her eyes as her cheeks colored.

“Can I get your number?” she asked. He was a _little_ surprised that she was able to keep the flirtation from leaking into her voice with _that_ one. 

He couldn’t _resist_ making the same face at her that she’d made at him when he’d tried to give her his number that first night a couple of weeks ago...even if it _did_ break the flirtatious mood.

“I don’t even _know_ you,” he said, trying to emulate her snark too. The affected politeness in her voice finally broke. She scoffed and crossed her arms.

“For coupons, dummy.” She nodded to the pin-pad at his right. _Oh_. 

“Five bucks,” she sighed as he typed, the sass in her tone apparently short-lived.

Her eyes were hazy and her smile gentle again when he looked up. She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth when their eyes met. 

Callum watched her hands tap at the register then tuck the crumpled bill he’d dug out from his back pocket away, waiting until she was done to reach for her and wrap his fingers around hers. He smiled to himself about how his hand covered hers so entirely.

“I wish I could stay, Rayla.” He kissed the side of her hand, right at the knuckle of her fourth finger, and her lips fell open watching him. “But I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” 

He clasped her hand in both of his now, giving her palm a gentle squeeze and her eyelashes fluttered quickly. It would’ve been impossible to miss the little tinge of melancholy as she stared at their hands, the purple in her eyes shining momentarily before she brightened and squeezed back.

“See you tomorrow,” she agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Come be friends on tumblr!](https://blutopaz15.tumblr.com/) :)


End file.
